


Rescue

by Alex_AngelOfTheLord



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-02 22:29:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11518803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alex_AngelOfTheLord/pseuds/Alex_AngelOfTheLord
Summary: Based off the prompt;You're listening to your favourite song when an unfamiliar voice from your headphones asks, "Hey, can anybody hear me?"





	1. Chapter 1

Steve Rogers is walking home from school, listening to his favourite song through his earphones, when he hears an unfamiliar voice.

"Hello? Can anyone hear me?"

Steve nearly falls on his ass. He pulls the small earphone mic to his mouth and replies quietly, "Yes?"

"Oh my god! It's working! Guys, it's working!" The boy's voice exclaims. "Please, you have to help us!"

"What's going on?" Steve asks

"I'm Tony. I'm here with Clint, Sam and Natasha. We've been taken!"

"Taken?"

Suddenly, a female voice is speaking. "Listen, guy, we've been kidnapped and we _need_ help. I can't remember the last time I saw the damn sun. _Help us_."

"Do you want me to get the cops-"

"No cops! They're involved!" A different male voice whisper-yells. "Just you."

"Well, where are you?"

"We uh-" A fourth voice chimes in. "We don't exactly know,"

Steve's hands fly up from his sides. "Then how the hell do you expect me to help you?!"

"Look, we'll figure it out. Just, stay on the line, got it?" The first voice - Tony - asks.

"On _what line?_ You hijacked my phone!"

"Just don't let your phone die, alright, guy?" The girl - she must be Natasha - snaps.

"It's Steve." He grumbles.

Steve doesn't sleep for the whole night. He keeps his earphones plugged in, but doesn't put them in his ears. They've gone radio silent anyway. Steve doesn't know if they're okay, or dead, or anything.

So he spends the whole night tossing and turning, worrying.

In the morning, he's listening to his favourite song again on the way to school.

"Steve?" Tony asks suddenly. It takes Steve by surprise, again, and he takes a sharp inhale of breath.

"Yes?"

"Oh, good. Wouldn't want to drag two people into this." Tony sighs in relief. "Anyways, I have a plan."

"Is it a good plan?" Steve asks. There's a small pause.

"I have a plan."

"That's not reassuring."

"Whatever. Do you hear this buzz?"

Suddenly, Steve hears a buzz. He replies with a 'yes'.

"Alright. This'll get louder the closer to us you get. You're not busy, right?"

"I _am_ walking to school-" Steve replies. "Maybe if you told me what was going on, I'd consider helping."

There's a long sigh and muttering in the background.

"Fine. I got thrown in here months ago. Some small, damp, dark cellar thing. One by one, these guys got thrown in, too. We don't have anything in common other than age, so we have no idea why us. They're just taking 16 year olds at random. They showed up to all our houses with 'There's been an accident. Your mum/dad/brother was involved. Come with us'. We went, and the rest is history or whatever. But they have guards. These... things. People that aren't entirely _people_."

"What do you mean?"

"You wouldn't believe me."

"Well this has been a lovely chat, then. I'll be leaving now-"

"Dammit, Steve! Don't you dare switch your phone off!" Tony yells, presumably slamming the table, or whatever his radio is on. He mutters something inaudible.

"What was that?"

"They're part robots, alright?!" He whisper-yells.

Steve says 'bye' then mutes his phone. He doesn't switch it off, just turns the volume down.

He's only halfway to school when it's too much and he sighs heavily. His ma should be at work by now. So he turns around and heads home.

He nearly kicks the damn door open and packs a rucksack. _Dammit_ he's going to look like a fucking idiot if this really is just a prank.

He packs things he might need. He doesn't know how long he'll be gone. One spare change of clothes, a first aid kit, a Swiss Army knife, a phone charger, three bottles of water, rope, and the picture of Bucky he always keeps with him.

Steve's childhood best friend is the only friend he's ever had. When they were 13, Bucky went missing. They never found him. They went to his empty-casket funeral and everything. Steve is 16 now and still doesn't have any other friends, and still carries the small picture of Bucky everywhere with him. It reminds him to be strong, stick up to the bullies.

That's why he's doing this now. Because if there's even a small chance this is real, then these people - each of them - they're someone's Bucky.

He slings the rucksack over his shoulder, and writes a note to his mother.

_Ma,_  
_I'll be gone for a bit. Not entirely sure how long. I'll be fine, though. Promise. I'll be back before you know it. Love you  
-Steve_

Steve turns the audio up in his earphones. The buzzing is still there.

"Tony?" He asks. No response. "Anyone?"

The silence makes him worry that much more. He gets on his bicycle (because it's a hell of a lot faster than walking) and cycles in the opposite direction of the school - it's getting louder. Slightly.

Steve nearly cries when he finds out the loud noise leads him to the train tracks. _It'll be faster - taking the train_. He tells himself. But it isn't a public train that uses these lines. It's a cargo train. He mentally slaps himself, but it's moving at a slow enough pace when it does pass him. He leaves his bike behind, and jumps in.

The clacking of the train is interfering with the buzzing. It's frustrating. He listens close, though. It's still getting louder.

Eventually, though, it starts getting quieter.

Steve stands at the edge of the train and shakes his head. The train's moving a lot faster now. It's deserted here, too. If he breaks his legs, no one's going to help him.

So what does Steve do? He throws his bag out, and jumps after it.

He lands in the dusty dry terrain with a crack beneath him. He groans in pain and lies there for a while, wallowing in self pity, until he remembers the buzzing. He sits up and lifts his trouser leg up. His ankle's just a little swollen, so he puts an ice pack from his first aid kit on it and holds it there with the tape his kit also thankfully has.

He hobbles through the deserted land, the buzzing getting ever louder, until he finds himself at a forest end. 

He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. _Too late to turn back now._


	2. Chapter 2

Regardless of how sore Steve's ankle is, he takes that first step into the forest, putting as little weight onto it as possible. _Suck it up, Rogers_. He tells himself, but there's still that little voice - it sounds like Bucky's - gently encouraging him. _You can do it, pal_.

He left for school at 8:30am, and it's now 7pm. Considering he went back, packed and wrote his ma a letter, he's been travelling for around nine hours now. He reckons he was on the train for three hours, and it took him two hours to get to the train in the first place. So the walk along the dry terrain was around _four hours_ alone.

He's only got two bottles of water left now, too.

He hopes to god this forest is a small one.

He takes in the bright green leaves and fluorescent flowers around him as he limps around branches and the odd fallen tree. He takes a couple photos, too, but only a couple. He doesn't want to waste his phone battery. He's at 63%, and he has no idea how far he'll have to walk before he finds somewhere to charge it. _Why didn't he take a damn map?_

Oh, right, because he has no idea where the hell he's going.

Steve briefly wonders if it really is a prank or something, and the buzzing getting louder is just him going insane.

He never thought he'd say he'd rather be doing algebraic fractions and long division, but he'd rather be doing algebraic fractions and long division.

Steve frowns when he realises the forest appears to be deteriorating. The trees have less leaves, the grass becomes more yellow and dull than bright green, the flowers are all wilted and fallen.

The forest is much more creepy now than it was when Steve last was focusing on anything other than the buzzing.

He takes a few photos of here too, though. If by a miracle he doesn't die, he'd like to look back at this strange quest.

He looks at the time again before putting his phone back in his pocket. It's 9:30pm. He's at 54%.

Steve shivers and puts his hands in his hoodie pockets. He's not a fan of how the wind's blowing and the trees seem to be whispering to him, willing him to turn back.

Steve finds a small clearing, where there's a little house. Part of him rejoices, while the other part of him screams in fear _. Don't be that one guy in the movies_. He tells himself. But his logical side says that's stupid. So, he walks towards the bungalow.

He knocks on the door several times before he opens it.

"Hello?" He asks, several times, before stepping into the house. The door swings closed behind him, and he hears a dog whimper from the corner of the room. He begins to walk to it, but stops when a note catches his eye. It's pinned to the wooden table with a knife. He picks it up and reads it under the light from the hole in the roof.

_To whomever it may concern,  
I can't remember the last time I had anyone pass by my house, so I can only pray someone will arrive soon. I have left to find a final resting place. I am old, and finding somewhere new to live at this age is pointless. I have two days left in me at the most, so I'm leaving this note here, along with my dearest friend, Bonnie. She's a cross springer spaniel/Rhodesian ridgeback. She's two years old and she loves running. If you're not too late, she'll need food, water, exercise and a loving home to go to. Please take care of her. If a place to stay is what you're looking for, I cleaned up before I left, so this place should suffice._

The letter is dated from four days ago.

Steve approaches the whining carefully and shines his phone torch in her direction. He hums quietly to himself when it doesn't do much - he can't see her without shining a light in her face. He looks around the room, wondering if this place would have lighting.

To his surprise, it does. He flicks a switch, and everything turns on. The place seems far cosier now than it did before. It's no longer daunting, but inviting. And Steve even notices the dog had used the damn _litter tray_.

He's not entirely sure what you're supposed to do with those, but he's already decided he's taking Bonnie with him, so he chucks it out the window and fills up Bonnie's water bowl.

Upon searching the cupboards, Steve nearly cries with happiness. They're filled with food for people _and_ dogs. He puts two cans of dog food in Bonnie's bowl (because she probably needs it) and makes himself a bowl of cereal. He eats up quickly and sighs at the dog. She looks like she needs a clean. But so does Steve.

He showers, shaves (last minute he remembered to pack a razor) and calls Bonnie into the bathroom. She trots through and excitedly hops into the ready made bath. Steve scrubs her clean, repeatedly telling her he is _Steve_ and this is a _bath_ , because he thinks that's probably how you train dogs, right? He dries her off and he reads a book while she sleeps partially on his lap, while his phone charges.

Steve's a little shocked at himself. He's in some presumably dead lady/man's house, eating their food, using their shower, taking care of their damn dog and reading their book about true crime, and he's not really _that_ phased.

Maybe he's just too set on the task of finding those kids.

Kids? What's he saying? He's the same age as them!

Steve realises he needs one thing and that one thing is sleep.

So he puts the book down, wakes Bonnie and lays down on the sofa, holding her close and falling asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just noticed I put chapter 2 twice so I'll post 3 and 4 today

In the morning, Steve awakes to dog breath. Bonnie's licking his face.

He almost slaps himself when he remembers he'd fallen asleep with his phone on charge, but then he realises the past 24+ hours have been so weird it shouldn't even be something that he's thinking about right now.

He gives Bonnie her breakfast and water, makes himself another bowl of cereal and gets packing.

He'd packed so little before in his backpack that he has plenty of room for stuff now. He packs all the breakfast and protein bars the previous resident had to offer, two boxes of dog food, a battery powered torch, he refills his water bottles and packs another two, for Bonnie, and her water bowl.

He plugs his earphones in, attaches Bonnie's collar to the matching leash and leaves the house, making sure to switch everything off first.

The forest, though still very much dead, is a considerable amount less scary to Steve when it's day and he has a companion by his side.

They're walking for half an hour before Steve realises maybe the black and white dog doesn't need a leash. He takes it off, and she continues to walk by his side, as she was doing before. Steve smiles happily and puts the leash in his bag before putting both hands in his pockets and humming as he continues to walk.

It's a really, _really_ fucked up situation Steve's in right now.

Steve fights every urge his body has to play fetch or see what tricks Bonnie can do for hours. Three, to be exact, before the forest begins to thin and suddenly they're not in the forest anymore; they're in a small town.

Steve puts Bonnie back on her leash and knocks on the first door he sees. When he gets no answer, he knocks on the next. And the next. And the next. Steve realises he's starting to see a theme - no one lives in this town.

The buzzing's pretty loud now, though. It's about the volume music would be if your phone was at half volume. Basically, it's loud enough now that Steve can take one earphone out and still hear it clearly. And that's what he does.

His walk is slow now; cautious. Bonnie must've picked up on his cautionary stance, because she too bends her knees a little and ducks her head, her tail still.

They make it to the end of the town, though, and nothing happens. It's just an empty town. Nothing else. Steve is almost disappointed, really.

They continue their walk. Not far past the town, Steve and Bonnie find a field. Steve has a quick moral debate and decides the dog needs time to run and exercise. He picks up stick after stick and throws them. She retrieves every single one and places them at his feet. When she's relatively burnt out, Steve decides to see what tricks she can do.

"Sit." He instructs. She does so, her tongue sticking out at the side.

"Roll over." He says. And she does that. She stays laying on her back, wiggling, silently asking him for a tummy rub. Steve can't resist, and he grins the whole time.

In the end, Steve finds that Bonnie knows how to sit, speak, sing, give both paws, roll over, lie down, play dead (and convincingly so), beg and she can even stand on her back legs and walk for a little.

Basically, Bonnie's a really fucking intelligent dog.

"Let's get you some food," Steve mumbles. He pours half a bottle of water in her bowl, drinks the other half himself, eats an energy bar and thanks Past-Steve for packing only dry dog food. He pours some out into the bowl once she's drank all her water and she eats it up quick enough. While she does, though, Steve lays down in the grass.

It's then he notices the buzzing's far quieter now than it was in the town.

His eyes widen at the realisation and he sits up quick, alerting Bonnie. He waits for her to finish eating and packs everything away in his bag. He puts the leash back on her once again and they walk back towards the town.

They walk around the outskirts of the town a couple of times, but the buzzing doesn't really change at all in this area, so Steve supposes he's gonna have to start searching.

In the first building, Steve finds four rooms; a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and a sitting room. The second and fourth are much the same. The third? Well, Steve's never smelled a dead body before but he's pretty sure in that house that's what he smelled. He didn't want to scar himself, so he closed the door and left before setting foot in there. Of course, if he finds nothing else in town, he'll go back there, his own innocence be damned.

He finds a small store in the eighth or ninth building: a convenience store. He puts a couple miscellaneous magazines in his bag and picks up a newspaper. He searches for a date. _August 24th, 2009_.

"God _damn_ ," Steve mumbles. "What happened to this place?"

He checks the other papers, just to be sure, but sure enough finds that they all have similar dates.

He jumps behind the counter and opens the cash register because he's not fucking stupid, this place is deserted and there's bound to be some kind of money left behind.

Until this very day, Steve has never had a _eureka!_ moment (though he'd often wanted one) but this was his. He doesn't want to count the money now -he has more important things to do- but he stashes it all away in the zip part inside the main compartment of his backpack, right at the bottom.

Steve can't take any food from here, obviously, so he quits, and goes straight to the creepy looking place across the street because screw it, he's feeling confident now. He opens the door and searches around for a little. He finds heavy metal doors and he's strangely not surprised when he hears distant, echoed screaming from the other side.


	4. Chapter 4

Steve ties Bonnie to a street lamp a little bit away from the building, leaving her with a squeaky toy he found in the store, and a promise he'll be back soon.

He takes a deep breath, " _in... and out_." The echo of Bucky's voice tells him, just like he used to say.

If Bucky could see Steve now, he'd probably freak out. Steve's tall and muscly now, not scrawny and small like he had been when they were 13. The growth spurt was painful, sure, but worth it in the long run.

Though Steve's thankful he's not sickly and small anymore, he's a little annoyed about the small part when he has to open the creaky door pretty wide to fit his broad shoulders through. He squeezes through as much as possible, though, and almost falls down the ladder, before he notices it's even there. A quiet gasp escapes his lips, but he recovers quick enough. He turns himself around and climbs down the cold metal on shaking legs. If he needs to get out of here in a hurry, he's in big trouble.

The daunting and incredibly echoey corridor is so long Steve almost can't see to the end of it. With every step he takes, though, the screams get louder. As does the buzzing.

Steve has never liked the ugly ear shaped sportsman earphones he has, but he's pretty sure now that he'll be thankful for them soon. He gets the odd, dreadful feeling he'll need to do a fair amount of running.

He peeks around the corner when he gets to the end of the hallway, and sees three possible pathways. _Oh, good_. He thinks to himself. He can hear that the screaming's coming from the right, so he decides he'll leave that until last. There's people talking in a foreign language to the left, so he decides straight ahead/silence is the best option.

This corridor is much shorter than the last, but still fairly long. At the end of this one, is a sharp left turn, and at the end of that hall, is a large metal door with a small sliding door at eye height for communication, Steve supposes.

It's unguarded, which seems a little odd, but Steve's the ballsy type of person (clearly) who'll take that as good luck, rather than something he should be suspicious about, though he's still cautious.

He slides the small metal rectangle along and looks through.

"Tony, your damn radio's broken, alright? No one's coming to help us now. It's done. We may as well just give up." One guy says, his arms folded across his chest. The room is silent, and Steve searches for a handle to get in there somehow. He finds a small button, presses it, and the door opens almost silently, to his surprise. No passcode or anything?

Then again, it is an underground base in a deserted town that's got to be at least 100 miles away from any civilisation.

"Shame you're givin' up, I just got here." Steve leans against the wall with his arms folded, a proud grin on his lips.

"Steve?!" Natasha yells in shock. Steve signals for her to quieten down.

"You know how in Shrek he rescues the princess without killing the dragon?" Steve asks. "The dragon is still _very_ much alive, but I haven't run into it yet." He explains.

"Oh my god you're here," Tony whispers. "Let's get going."

"We can't just leave these people here to hurt more people, can we?" The dirty blonde haired guy asks, his face riddled with fear.

"I'm not a huge fan of the idea of killing people, Clint," The other boy - who must be Sam - admits.

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it now _come on_." Tony groans. The four stand up and follow Steve. When they round the corner, though, Steve has to hold out a hand to push everyone back. There's people guarding the long hallway now, patrolling up and down it.

"Any other way out of here?" Steve asks.

"No... only... _one_..." Natasha trails off. Her eyes become wide with something of realisation and happiness. "There's only one exit. If we can make it out of here, we can weld the doors shut or something, right? That way, we're not _technically_ killing anyone, but they're still not going to hurt anyone else!"

"You're a genius, Natasha." Clint gushes.

"So, how do we do that?" Sam questions.

"To the left, is the trained assassins and the guys who run this thing," Tony says. "To the right is the weapons base and the people who they've modified, but not entirely put under their control. They should be in cryostasis right now, anyway."

"So right's our best option, then?" Steve asks.

"Sounds like it." Sam nods.

When the guards turn to march back down the long corridor, the five make their move. They run almost silently, make a right and run down the hall. Steve averts his eyes from the human freezers of cyborgs and keeps them directed at the floor until they close the door behind them when they enter the room at the end. Steve supposes that the voices he heard earlier were those of the people who are now guarding the exit.

Tony grabs a gauntlet that looks like it could probably kill someone, Natasha takes shock bracelets and guns, Sam just sticks with guns, Clint takes a bow and a bunch of arrows, and Steve takes a round metal shield.

"We have all the advanced weapon technology in the world here, and you take a piece of scrap metal?" Tony asks judgementally.

"I'm more of a defence guy," Steve shrugs. He loosely clips it to his backpack and joins the others at the control panel.

"Can't believe they don't have anyone guarding this stuff," Sam mumbles.

"Can't have that many people working for them then, can they?" Natasha asks rhetorically. That relaxes Steve's nerves a little.

Even through all of this, Steve wonders if Bonnie's okay. She must be so worried, he thinks. He'll see her soon enough, though, he reminds himself.

"Okay, so I think I can make the alarms go off at the place they kept us, so all the guards will have to go there, and that'll give us enough time to get past and out of here."

"Alright, do it." Steve instructs. Tony hits the button, they wait five seconds and make their move.

This time, Steve doesn't think to look away from the freezers; the adrenaline pumping through his veins is too distracting, but a familiar face stops him in his tracks, and he finds himself with his hand on the cold glass holding the sleeping person.

"Bucky..?"


End file.
